The Psychological Significance of Stories
In Beyond Order, Clinical Psychologist Jordan Peterson showed the significance of psychological analysis of stories for deriving meaning.
Art is the benchmark of culture. If looked at properly, it tells us a lot about the ideals, aspirations, and social conditions of the period. Historians understand this phenomenon remarkably thus have referred to the paintings, architecture, and fiction of the specific period studied.
In October 1726, Jonathan Swift wrote Gulliver’s Travels. The plot goes like this, a young explorer named Gulliver finds himself on a mysterious island inhabited by dwarfs. On the face of it, it might seem like a mere adventure story for kids. But such a perception is both ignorant and lazy.
Gulliver’s travels tell us a great deal about the social conditions of the time.
During the time, ‘Gulliver’s Travels was written, European explorers were busy colonizing new islands. Tribes in many of these islands baffled the Europeans with their way of living. Europeans regarded these tribes, as inferiors to them but, it instilled the curiosity to explore more islands to get to know more tribes. This aspect of Europe found its way in Gulliver’s Travels.
Swift’s creative mind took this truth to a different level and created a piece of art, which partially represented the conditions of Europe at the time.
(It’s amusing to note that the vision for the story entered as a chemical reaction in Swift’s brain, which was then articulated and orally transmitted across the globe, thus eventually creating something from nothing).
There are infinite more examples of art representing the conditions of society.
We make use of all our five senses to make sense of the world around us. Since the beginning of time, patterns that have been continually observed by our senses have found their place in art.
The abstract concept of Good and Evil has found itself in stories of all cultures. From an evolutionary perspective, it means that the abstract idea of Good and Evil allows persons in society to function properly, which in turn promotes their survival.
This fact makes the psychological analysis of stories even more crucial as now we could gain wisdom that is scientifically backed.
In his book, Dr. Peterson derives meaning from The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. While doing so, he also directs the reader’s attention to how the pattern finds itself embedded in stories of other cultures including the Mesopotamian culture.
The main lesson from the Harry Potter series is that rules are necessary to regulate ourselves and others so, we should respect them. However, sometimes rules may fail to serve the purpose they are supposed to, thus we shouldn’t be afraid of breaking them to achieve the greater good. The adventures of Harry, Ron, and Hermoine make this point more than clear.
In a nutshell, rules are of utility but, they are not absolute and must be modified when required.
Apart from fiction, this abstraction finds itself represented in the constitutions of many nations in today’s world. Provision of amendments exists for a reason.
Similarly, you can apply this logic to show the necessity of Liberals and Conservatives in a society. Conservatives protect the rules, while liberals break the rules through revolutions. Both are equally important. Thus a state of equilibrium is a must for a just society, otherwise if one of them gains more power, it would lead to tyranny as History has shown.
Coming back to art, it is true that within them lies the social conditions of the time and abstract moral principles, which tell us how to conduct ourselves in society.
“Creative people write and act out dramas and tell us stories that capture our imagination, and they fill our dreams with visions of what might be. The deepest and most profound of these are remembered, discussed, and otherwise honed collectively, and made the focus of rituals that unite us across the centuries, forming the very basis of our cultures. These are the stories upon which the rituals, religious, and philosophical edifices characterizing sophisticated, populous, successful societies are built.”- Jordan Peterson, Beyond Order.
Understanding the role played by stories in organizing societies, you’ll be better able to learn the religious mind and the significance played by religions since the agricultural revolution, to bind us together.
However many academicians have a hard time understanding this truth,(especially those in hard sciences- Physics, Chem, and Bio). If you see religion from a linear atheistic perspective, you’ll despise it. If your perception of religion is limited to the belief in the man in the sky, then you are looking at it wrong.
At this point, it is almost certain, that there is no God and most religious practices are myths, but that doesn’t make Religion useless. Studying religious stories and rituals from a Psychological and Anthropological viewpoint can give us deeper insights regarding the importance of religion in binding groups.
All one requires to do is widen his/ her thinking and religion would emerge out as a set of stories shaped by the long process of evolution, containing patterns that would help us cooperate with our group and conduct ourselves in a way that would help us rise in the social hierarchy, which humans so keenly arrange themselves in.
Religion has a lot of understanding to offer to the academic world. Yet many of these scientists are stuck in their rationalist delusion to realize it.
I’ll articulate my thoughts regarding the rationalist delusion in the next article.
